Thursday, December 27, 2007

Comic Cuts

I'm back. I've eaten too much, slept too little and I'm just doodling around the internet while backing up some files on the computer. Very soon I will be eating again. I was planning a full-blown photo montage of what I've been up to but I stuck my camera in a bag with a change of clothes and completely forgot about it. I'm suffering from camera envy anyway, having seen a slide show my sister put together. I'm desperately resisting the temptation to get a new camera.

I'm away from the house for at least part of tomorrow so I thought I'd post a couple things today that I've had lined up for a while. Immediately below is a little piece written by Jeremy Briggs last May (!) when we were talking about setting up a forum on the Look and Learn website. Jeremy reminded me about it recently so this seems the perfect opportunity to use it.

And below that we have a complete 4-part adventure advertising KP Alien Spacers. Nothing says Merry Christmas like an adventure set on the brink of a new Dark Age!

* Raymond Briggs was interviewed by the Daily Telegraph's Benjamin Secher (24 December). The Telegraph's Saturday magazine (23 December) also included a piece on Briggs' daily routine in their My Life column.

* Simon Spurrier was interviewed by Alex Fitch and Duncan Nott for their Strip! show on Resonance FM (13 December) and is now available as a podcast at the Reality Check/Panel Borders blog. An interview with Mark Buckingham broadcast on 25 December will shortly be available as a podcast.

* Lew Stringer has been running a festive flashback series taking a look at annuals of the past... there's also a Christmas episode of his Combat Colin strip. All can be found at Lew's Blimey! blog.


IN THE POST

A couple of magazines recently received:

Eagle Times v.20 no.4 (Winter 2007). The Christmas issue of Eagle Times includes a cover made from a selection of Christmas cards sent out by Frank Hampson (the front cover image, above, is dated Xmas 1947). Inside is the usual broad selection of Eagle-related features; recent years have seen more of a diverse collection of articles, including a number on related topics -- features on pop music of the 1950s, a 5-part feature on Dick Barton (concluding in this issue) and a piece on Alex Raymond's influence on Hampson. The bulk of the magazine remains Eagle-oriented with a look at Hampson's very early strip work in the Union of Post Office Workers' magazine The Post, features about untold Dan Dare stories, real locations from the Jack O'Lantern strip, artwork by Harold Johns and Cecil Orr, Eagle novels, autographs and the concluding episode of a PC 49 story (based on an old radio script).

Subscriptions are £22 a year (£26 overseas in sterling). Cheques and whatnots can be sent to the membership secretary, Keith Howard, 25A Station Road, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 2UA.

Don't forget Eagle Times now has its own blog run by Will Grenham, one of the ET editorial team.

Paperback Fanatic no.5 (Winter 2007). A little off the comics' track but another fascination of mine. I've collected old British paperbacks for years and a decade or so ago published a paperback fanzine called PBO. Maurice Flanagan also published a paperback fanzine in book form (Paperbacks, Pulps and Comics) but, when both folded, there was a void. Now superbly filled by Justin Marriott's Paperback Fanatic. Justin's main interest is the paperback boom of the 1970s and the various issues of PF have included an astonishing array of covers and genres. This issue includes an interview with 'Big Bob' Tralins, who churned out dozens of sleazy novels for the US paperback market in the 1960s before going semi-legit. writing genre fiction in the 1970s -- everything from horror to slaver novels. There's more horror as Justin takes a look at the paperback 'nasties' that sprung up in the wake of James Herbert's The Rats (1974) and Guy N. Smith's Night of the Crabs (1976). Before long, every insect, rodent and reptile had a novel named after it as nature rebelled and eviscerated mankind with every tooth, claw and mandible available. There are articles on the rivals of Conan and the second part of a look at Leo Kessler-esque war books. Next issue promises an interview and features on the late Peter Haining.

You can obtain copies (£3.50 UK, £5 Europe, $8 US and Canada) via PayPal from Justin by dropping him a line here: justinATjustincultprint.free-online.co.uk (replacing the AT with an @).

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